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In February 2008, I was privileged enough to travel to Michoacan, Mexico where I visited the monarch butterfly bioreserves with the Monarch Teacher Network. (Check out my posts from the trip here.) Right now, a group of friends and teachers is in Mexico where they should be visiting the reserves. Instead, they are sitting in a hotel in Mexico City, trying to plan their next move.

On Friday, after extreme rainfall across central Mexico, a devastating flood struck the small mountain town of Angangueo in Michoacan. The rain lasted for over two days and was the heaviest rainfall in over 25 years, according to authorities.
Angangueo is located directly in between two of the monarch reserves and the people there are amazing. Due to the floods, many homes and lives have been lost. To make matters worse, much of the mountain forests have been illegally logged, so there have been a great many mudslides in the area of El Rosario.

I can’t imagine what it is like there right now. The government has declared Angangueo a disaster area and most of the people in the area have been evacuated to other towns. The roads into and out of the area, and up the mountain to the sanctuaries, have been damaged extensively by landslides. According to some eyewitnesses there, the road to El Rosario is impassable. There has been very little news about the monarchs in the reserves (which pales in comparison to the human lives, of course). But this year’s monarch population is one of the lowest in years according to scientists, at only 1.92 hectares.

Visiting Michoacan was a life-changing experience. A few pictures from my trip can hardly capture the magic of the region, but it is the least I can do. This is getting little to no media coverage in the US. My heart is breaking for the amazing people who care for the monarch butterflies over the winter months and the losses they have suffered. They are a resilient people, but I am keeping them in my prayers.

A hotel in Angangueo

Some children on their way to school in Angangueo

The view from the parking lot at El Rosario. Supposedly the road is completely destroyed.

The path up the mountain at El Rosario. A river of monarchs.

One of the restaurants run by the local people at El Rosario

A local Purepechuan women at El Rosario

The road, laid by hand by the local people, that is supposedly impassable now due to mudslides

I worry that homes like these are flooded or wiped out by mudslides

Oyamel forests like this one, at Sierra Chincua, have been illegally clearcut, resulting in the mudslides.